<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">A key skill required of the next Magic coach will be to develop the team's young talent, General Manager Otis Smith said Thursday. In firing Brian Hill, Smith and the Magic essentially chose a style of play for a core group of young players over the veteran coach's experience. While it was a decision Smith said "kept me up several nights" over the past three weeks, he said it was "a matter of what's going to be best for this team long run." Four of the Magic's core players -- center Dwight Howard, point guard Jameer Nelson, shooting guard J.J. Redick and small forward Trevor Ariza -- will enter next season with three or fewer years of experience. And forward Darko Milicic, a restricted free agent the Magic want to re-sign, will be beginning just his fourth season in the league. Baby steps aren't enough anymore for a team that barely qualified for the Eastern Conference playoffs and was swept by the Detroit Pistons in the first round. "Brian has done some good things to prepare us as far as instilling discipline and structure, but now we need to take the next step and I thought it was time [for a change]," Smith said. Smith said Hill did alter his coaching style some from his first go-round in Orlando during the Shaq-and-Penny era. But he is still a defensive-minded coach with a slow-down offensive style. The Magic ranked 27th out of 30 teams in scoring at 94.8 points per game, and they were next-to-last in assists and turnovers made. Smith said the Magic need and will seek a coach who can better maximize the young potential and push the offensive pace. "It's not about running -- it's about running with a purpose," Smith said. It was obvious at various points during the season that a clear role was not established for Nelson. And many observers also shrugged at the sporadic use of Redick, the team's No. 1 draft pick in 2006. "Offense, imagination and lack of adjustments" were shortcomings that led Smith to be "disappointed at what we got out of our season." Smith said he sees a "good young basketball team centered around Dwight" that is "attractive enough to get the attention" of a quality coach. The development of Howard, who made the all-star team for the first time last season, and others will be paramount if the Magic are to advance beyond being a team that just sneaks into the playoffs. "That factor [thinking about youth] was huge for me as it relates to the growth of our team," Smith said. "Obviously we think we have a good enough basketball team to be further along than we were, or we wouldn't be making this change." But unlike his initial stint in Orlando in which Hill's players revolted and precipitated his dismissal, Hill's old-school ways wrote his eulogy with less friction this time. Smith said players generally were supportive of Hill. Said Smith: "It was more of what I saw on the floor and the adjustments with the tempo and style of the young players and how it was meshing with them." To Smith, it clearly wasn't meshing. So the Magic are again looking for the right fit.</div> Source: Orlando Sentinel
Sounds like resigning Darko is a priority and sounds like Jameer will be our starting PG next year, which wouldn't be too bad assuming we do run.
Jameer, I think is a good PG, he reminds me of Deron Williams abit, Just not as good. I hope he gets better, and Darko too.
